Africa: NLC plans Tuesday-protest to press for new minimum wage

To reassure the Federal government of its seriousness on the
new national minimum wage, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has fine tuned an
arrangement to hold a nationwide protest on Tuesday, over Government’s delay in
transmitting the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee on a new National
Minimum Wage to the National Assembly.

The NLC General Secretary, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson indicated this
in a statement to newsmen in Abuja in Monday, saying it is in furtherance of
the position of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the NLC which earlier
threatened to embark on a nationwide protest on January 8, if the Federal Government
did not send the Tripartite Committee report on N30,000 minimum wage to the
National Assembly.

The organised labour issued the threat following President
Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that a “high powered technical committee” would be
set up to device ways to ensure that its implementation did not lead to an
increase in the level of borrowing.

Ozo-Eson recalled that the National Executive Council
of NLC met on December 17 and approved a nationwide mobilisation of workers and
allies protest.

“That is, if by Dec. 31, 2018, the bill on the National
Minimum Wage has yet to be sent to the National Assembly to be passed as an act
of parliament.

“We immediately announced then that on Tuesday, January 8,
2019, there will be a nationwide mass mobilisation and protests simultaneously
across all states in Nigeria. This does not translate to a strike.

“It is on record that each time we had cause to embark on a
national strike, we say so publicly without any equivocation.

‘‘We still don’t understand where the story about a strike
commencing tomorrow came from,” he said, noting that all state councils,
affiliate unions and the civil society organisations have been fully informed
and mobilised to ensure the success of Tuesday’s mass protests in all the
states and the Federal Capital Territory.

He added that when a date was decided for the commencement
of a strike subsequently, we would inform the public appropriately.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean teachers will commence strike on
Tuesday to press for U.S. dollar-denominated salaries following the failure of
talks with the government.

Union officials said on Monday that the talks failed to
bring a breakthrough in negotiation over the issue.
This had been putting pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to contain a
runaway currency crisis.
Cash shortages have plunged Zimbabwe’s financial system into disarray,
threatening social unrest and undermining Mnangagwa’s efforts to win back
foreign investors sidelined under his predecessor Robert Mugabe.

With not enough hard currency to back up funds showing in
bank accounts, the value of electronic money has plummeted, prompting
businesses and civil servants to demand payment in U.S. dollars they can
withdraw.

Just over four months into Mnangagwa’s contested presidency,
the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union (ZIMTA) said its members would strike as spiraling
inflation has left them unable to buy basic goods and fuel that are in short
supply.

Government doctors have been on strike for more than a month
over the same issue.

ZIMTA president, Richard Gundani, said that a meeting
between public sector unions and acting Labour, Minister Moyo only resolved to
re-start talks, but teachers would not report for duty from Tuesday.

“We were very frank to each other and all the unions agreed
that workers are incapacitated and we provided sufficient justification that
they are unable to work,” Gundani said.

“ZIMTA’s declaration of incapacitation stands and teachers
will not go to work.”
Moyo did not immediately answer calls to his mobile phone.
The government employs more than 100,000 teachers and ZIMTA has 44,000 members.

On Monday police arrested and later released nine members of
the smaller Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, who were picketing at
a park in central Harare, their lawyer said.
There was a heavy presence of police with water cannon elsewhere in the
capital.

As doctors continue their strike, Zimbabwe’s public
hospitals have been left short of drugs and reliant on patients to buy them.

Pharmacies have stopped accepting insurance policies for
purchases and demand payment in dollars.

Zimbabwe is also struggling with acute shortages of fuel,
forcing motorists to queue for hours.
Civil servant salaries accounted for 90 per cent of the budget in 2018 but
Mnangagwa’s government has made an ambitious pledge to cut this to 70 per cent
in 2019 as part of reforms aimed at boosting growth and investment.

Mnangagwa came to power in November 2017 after Mugabe was
forced to resign following an army coup.
He was declared president in August 2018 after a presidential vote that his
main opponent says he won fraudulently.

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